'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Drive' playwright turns heads with twist

Thursday

Oct 10, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 10, 2013 at 12:33 PM

The star of the upcoming production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Drive isn't Ichabod Crane or the Headless Horseman. It's 10-year-old Treya Moore of Dublin, without whom the show might not have gone on.

Ken Gordon, The Columbus Dispatch

The star of the upcoming production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Drive isn’t Ichabod Crane or the Headless Horseman.

It’s 10-year-old Treya Moore of Dublin, without whom the show might not have gone on.

Director John Heisel of Carriage Place Children’s Theatre had planned to borrow a friend’s production of the original Sleepy Hollow story, but the friend couldn’t find the script.

“It was about four weeks before auditions, and I was frantic,” Heisel said. “We were in big trouble. But, then, enter the hero.”

That would be Treya. Hearing the discussion about the lack of a script, she told her mother, Heather Moore, that she had an idea for a modern twist on the 19th-century story by American author Washington Irving.

During the next month, Treya labored on her script.

“I have never seen her be so focused,” her mother said. “That’s what really impressed me.”

Treya asked her mother to help with some of the adult dialogue, but the bulk of the 35-page script came from Treya.

The result was a comedic mystery set in the present-day in Tarrytown, N.Y., Middle School, where children encounter all the elements of the tale: Crane; his rival, Brom Bones; and, of course, the spooky horseman.

But Treya also weaved in a parallel storyline that addresses the issue of bullying. Her mother discovered that October is national anti-bullying month, so the plotline seemed to be a natural fit.

“I see it a lot,” said Treya, a fifth-grader at Riverside Elementary. “In school, after school — whenever the teacher isn’t looking.”

A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Kaleidoscope Youth Center in Columbus, which works to combat bullying.

Treya’s interest in theater was sparked about four years ago, when her mother took her to a Columbus Children’s Theatre production.

“She was really interested immediately,” Heather Moore said. “I took her to an audition for Sleeping Beauty at Abbey Theater (in Dublin), just thinking it would be a good experience.

“I told her, ‘Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get to do it,’ but then she got a good part right off the bat.”

Treya was 6. She has been involved regularly ever since.

“I like making new friends, being onstage performing and making people happy,” she said.

Watching a show that she wrote come together was “a new, strange experience — in a good way,” she said.

She wants to try directing at some point, and Heisel thinks she has that potential.

“She’s got a talent,” he said. “She’s an old soul in a very young body. I think she’s got a real future, and when she wins a Tony (award) I hope she will say, ‘Thank you’ to the old man.”